It was a banner night for the Boston Bruins, who saw 16 different skaters record a point in a dominant win against the Montreal Canadiens.
It was a banner night for the Boston Bruins, who saw 16 different skaters record a point in a dominant win against the Montreal Canadiens.
BOSTON – It’s not every day that the Boston Bruins put up nine goals in one game. In fact, it's happened just three times in the past 30 years.
But that’s exactly what happened on Saturday in a 9-4 win against the Montreal Canadiens. On a night where the team honored its ‘New Blood, New Beginnings’ era from 1986-2000, the 2023-24 Bruins gave reason for even more celebration.
For starters, Danton Heinen recorded his first NHL hat trick. The 28-year-old forward – who started the season on a Professional Tryout Agreement (PTO) – had not scored a point in the last five games and was without a goal for the past eight. Out of nowhere, he exploded for three goals, two of which came at crucial moments to take the lead.
“I’m not gonna lie, it felt good,” Heinen said. “Hasn’t been going in lately, so it feels good to see it go in and just contribute to get the two points.”
In addition to Heinen, two players hit big season milestones that moved them up the franchise record books.
David Pastrnak scored on a breakaway 1:26 into the third to put Boston ahead 6-4. It marked Pastrnak’s 30th goal of the season, making it the seventh 30-goal season of his career. That tied him with Johnny Bucyk for the second-most in Bruins history behind Rick Middleton and Phil Esposito, who each have eight.
It also moved Pastrnak into sole possession of second place for most 30-goal seasons by a Czech player, ahead of Petr Klema’s six and behind Jaromir Jagr’s 15, according to NHL Stats.
“It’s nice to see the guys get rewarded for those kind of things,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “And it’s nice for our goalies to get wins when we’ve given up more goals than we’re accustomed to, because they’ve been carrying us, as we know, a lot of the season here.”
Another Czech hit a personal milestone, with Pavel Zacha scoring his 100th NHL goal to make it 8-4 at 9:13 of the third. The goal broke an eight-game drought for the 26-year-old forward.
Lastly, Brad Marchand reached 20 goals for the season at 4:32 of the third to make it 7-4. It marks the 11th straight year he’s hit 20 goals in a season, which is a new franchise record. Patrice Bergeron and Bucyk each had 10 consecutive 20-goal seasons.
Only Alex Ovechkin (18), Patrick Kane (13) and John Tavares (11) have 11 or more consecutive 20-goal seasons among active players, according to NHL Stats.
It’s the 13th total such season for Marchand, who got stuck at 18 goals in 45 games in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. As it stands, Bucyk (16) and Bergeron (14) still have more total 20-goal seasons.
“It’s too bad we had that lockout year, otherwise it would have been all the way through,” Marchand said. “It’s great. I think the biggest part of that is I’ve been fortunate enough to play with a lot of really good players. We’ve been very fortunate to have very good teams here and have had a lot of team success, so with that comes individual success.”
As Marchand alluded, the Bruins have bigger goals down the road. But for one night amid an 82-game season, in a beatdown against a historic rival, Boston had a lot to celebrate.
Other Links:
Parker Wotherspoon’s Taking Advantage of NHL Opportunity in Boston
Bruins Send Mason Lohrei, Johnny Beecher Down to AHL Providence